Site Council Update

Noticias de la Escuela – April 2004

PSI Site Council is happy to announce its newest members. Welcome to Patty Anderson, Angie Hitterdal, Heather Nelson, Laura Schwartz, Jake Spano, and Chris Watkins. Best wishes also go out to Angie Eilers who will be serving as the SC Chair for the upcoming school year.

SC is pleased and proud to present the completion of our school’s Strategic Plan. SC presented the outline of the Plan at the May PTO meeting and will be sending out the summarized brochure to all PSI households in the Fall, when implementation commences. The goal of this plan is to establish a formal foundation of consistent effort toward academic excellence with specific action steps to be accomplished over the next few years. It will be the charge of the PSI SC to maintain its integrity and manage the completion of our Strategic Plan. This great endeavor will no doubt serve as a most valuable asset to PSI as a whole. Many thanks to those who participated in its creation.

At the April meeting, Mr. Bob Laney, Sr. High Principal reported on the planning stage of the ESP (Extended Spanish Program) at his school. His research team has done thorough work preparing for the first year of entering immersion students in the Fall and are extremely excited to pave the way for them. The current plan involves a new course (composition and communication) developed in collaboration with the high school staff, Dr. Tara Fortune and CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, UMN), Corey Maslowski, PSI staff and University of Minnesota Spanish department. Upper grade parents were invited to attend and Mr. Laney was available for a Q & A session.

At the May meeting, Les Bork, Jr. High Principal reported on the ESP program at his site. Highlights from is presentation were the following: an on-line parent survey was conducted at the end of school last year and plans to conduct another this year, 30% of current ESP students received academic based Presidential Awards, plans are being made for student evaluation by means of a standardized language assessment (COPA – presentation noted in last months SC article) to chart language skills and growth from PSI through Jr. High, plans are to continue offering two classes in Spanish ( Language Arts and Geography). Upper grade parents were invited to attend and Mr. Bork was available for a Q & A session as well.

Several other issues were also covered at the final meeting. The Overnight 5th Grade Field-Trip was revisited and SC’s recommendation has been revised. Increased cost to attend the Concordia Language Villages was cause to re-evaluate that local. Consensus was reached that the Environmental Camp Eagle Bluff should be re-assigned as the destination for the two-night 5th grade field-trip in the Fall.

In addition, Stra. Brown spoke on her trip to Washington DC remarking that besides the opportunity to share ideas with the best of the best, one of the more impressive characteristics of the Milken Foundation is its goal to professionalize the vocation of educators.

The newly established By-laws Committee handed out a draft version of a revised set of SC By-laws for summer review. The revision is based on group input and observation of the past few years of SC operations with the goal of clarifying the role and duties of site council.

In the facility update, Principal Swanson reported that full bathroom renovations at PSI are on the verge!

Lastly, an Exit Interview process was initiated to assist in the pursuit of effective leadership. In great appreciation of volunteer efforts and school leadership, the PSI SC would like to recognize outgoing members Nyssa Brown, Ricardo Franco, Laurie Koch, Tom O’Neil, Rachel Raz, Rachel Richardson and Betty Shaw. Thank you for outstanding service and commitment to PSI.

The minutes from all meetings are available in the SC Notebook located in the school office.

Best wishes for a great summer!
PSI Site Council